Every time there’s a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court and the Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings, the spectacle is disappointing. They ought to be talking about the Constitution, and instead, well, many of us remember a hearing that revolved around Coke cans and a rental video starring “Long Dong Silver.”
This time around, following the recent resignation of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, there’s already talk that the religious right might oppose Attorney General Alberto Gonzales because he hasn’t supported overturning Roe vs. Wade, and there is plenty of conjecturing about other names and whether they will pass muster with various Bushite sects.
We should quit speculating about possible nominees. We may or may not be surprised when the president makes an announcement, just as the president may or may not be surprised by a judge’s rulings after confirmation.
Instead, we should push for some better questions at the hearings. Granted, it wouldn’t be prudent for the Judiciary Committee to ask questions about specific cases, but there are some general questions that could tell us what we need to know about a prospective justice. Among them:
Many modern American disputes can be traced back to a division between two Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, concerning the powers and responsibilities of the federal government in relation to the states. Which one is your favorite, and why?
Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution says, “Congress shall have power … To declare War.” Does the U.S. president have the authority to order the invasion of a foreign country in the absence of a congressional declaration of war, and if so, under what circumstances?
Section 8 also states that “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.” Does this apply to federal bodies like the National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency and National Reconnaissance Office?
Amendment 1 of the federal Constitution says in part that “Congress shall make no law … abridging freedom of speech.” Can you reconcile this with the provision of the Patriot Act that forbids people from telling anyone that they were served with an administrative subpoena by a federal investigator?
Article I, Section 10, states that “No state shall … make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Does this mean that all state taxes have to be paid in specie? Does it mean that if you did not receive any gold or silver coins last year, then you had no income, and therefore owe no income taxes? Can you offer us even a clue as to what this means?
Are your religious beliefs and practices any of the public’s business, since Article 6 states that “no religious test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States”?
Does the federal constitution have any preference as to whether counties in Colorado elect their commissioners by allowing the entire county to vote on seats allocated by geographic district, or by limiting the vote to a commissioner district’s registered electors?
Amendment 2 says that “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Does “the People” refer to individuals, or local militias?
In the absence of an Equal Rights Amendment to the federal constitution, are there any rights and privileges not accorded to American women?
Please state your opinion of this 1894 statement by Anatole France: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”
If the Senate started asking questions like these, we might not get a better Supreme Court, but the hearings would certainly be more lively and interesting, and we ought to take what we can get.
Ed Quillen of Salida (ed@cozine.com) is a former newspaper editor whose column appears Tuesday and Sunday.
